Electrochemical Ammonia Recovery from Manure Wastewater Integrated with Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Reduction

Abstract

There were 40 million cows in the US in 2020 which provide necessary protein-rich food and are integral to the US economy. However, . Currently manure is managed simply by storing and spreading to nearby cropland as a fertilizer to reuse nutrients. Given the high water content and low nutrient concentration of manure, effective approaches to recover nutrients from manure wastewater and reduce greenhouse gas emissions are needed. Our group has recently developed ammonia (potassium) recovery from manure wastewater and co-production of chemicals using nutrient-selective redox material1. I will report my progress toward developing a new electrochemical strategy to achieve integrated ammonium (and potassium) nutrient recovery from manure wastewater and simultaneous biogas upgrading by electrochemically reducing carbon dioxide to formate and other locally useful products. This project will effectively mitigate CO2 emissions in traditional manure processing and provide a sustainable strategy for resource recovery, distributed electrosynthesis of fertilizers and other value-added chemicals, paving the way to carbon-neutral agriculture. Wang, R., Yang, K., Wong, C. et al. Electrochemical ammonia recovery and co-production of chemicals from manure wastewater. Nat Sustain (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01252-z